Beth, we got a call from the Willamette National Forest requesting a conference call to discuss their Travel Management Plan. Can I get a copy of the letter you wrote to them as State Director? Also, who is your regional PNW contact from the Salem/Eugene/Willamette area? We need info ASAP. Please post up your land use activities as State Director concerning the Willamette so that we can all be on the same page. Who is the local club you are working with and who is the contact?

Beth, I am assuming that you did not write to the Willamette as Oregon State Director. That is unfortunate. If ANYONE has written to them concerning trails within the past couple of years (except for the Santiam OHV area) or have had conversations with them or turned in maps, we need to know ASAP. They are claiming that no one has spoken to them at all and we know this not to be true. We need any and all documentation concerning Class II interaction with this agency pertaining to trails on the Willamette National Forest.

I talked to Beth last night. She is out of state until late next week.

She asked me to put up the following for her as she has no access at this time.

The letter she sent via email was more generic in nature stating the need for more class II routes other than roads, and urging the Forest to work with local clubs to accomplish that. She had no specific routes in mind as she does not know the forest that well. Stated that she does not have a member or club contact with WNF at this time, and the two Region clubs closest to them would be probably either Oregon Trail or Strawberry Hill.

Most of Detroit RD is in Region 3 and the rest is down in Region 6.

My thoughts now.......

While it would be nice to have a system like Arlene has in WA, the last 7 or 8 Directors have gotten no help in setting it up and making it work. This has gone on since at least my first stint as Director back in the mid 80's. The people on the ground need to make it happen.

Thank you for posting for Beth. I saw her online here yesterday, so I just assumed that if she was online that she could post. I am not a computer genius so I donít know exactly how that works.

I agree wholeheartedly with you that a system of regional land use contacts like Arlene has developed in Washington would be extremely beneficial in Oregon. It is unfortunate that this has not happened with the leadership over the past twenty years.

Within just the past year since Randy Drake has been the land use coordinator for Region 6, he has been able to develop a network similar to Arlene's that covers most of the region. He is currently working with several clubs in the area pertaining to the Willamette. I asked who Bethís contact was not because we had no contacts but because we wanted to also include whoever she may have been working with.

As you know, Randy is running for the office of Oregon State Executive Director. Under his leadership, hopefully the rest of Oregon can be organized similar to the way Washington and Region 6 have been organized. With the Travel Management deadline fast approaching, this type of leadership and organization is becoming more and more critical.

This thread is not the place for campainging, but ALL state directors for the past 20+ years have tried to do something along those lines to no avail. The rank and file is/was not interested, they would just as soon see someone else do it. With the elimination of cross-country travel, now the closures of the ML 1 roads (been in effect in most forests since the early 90's) will become more apparent now. Yes, the ML 1 roads were closed, but with cross-country travel still allowed, there was no way to enforce it.

Beth's daughter had logged in to check and see after I had left a voice mail for Beth to get on here to respond to your request. She will not post up under Beth's login however, so Beth asked me to.

This is Dave, Beth's other half. There are 3 of us that look at this website under the bjeepin3 login. It is set on the favorites for immediate login. Frankie and I like looking at the pictures mostly. Beth also logs in at work at times and lets some of her younger patients that are bored look at the site, they also seem to enjoy it.

So, if you see her logged in it is not always her. I have never felt like posting here before and after reading several of these threads, I really hope she does not run for the Oregon Director position. It is thankless and as near as I can tell the back biting is uncalled for. I know that lately, she has not wanted to write the letters for the management plans for fear of stepping on toes with in region 6. If your opinion does not match that of whoever has appointed themselves as the end all be all of land matters within the region, then you are leaving yourself open for attack and what seems like banishment from the fold.

Generally, I leave Beth to fight her own battles and she can hold her own if it is important to her. I know she really liked doing this but her enthusiasm for it has lessened. I leave the politics of 4 wheeling to her. She did ask to get a system going like in Washington. The only people that gave her reports were Art and Tom. It has only been since several of the long time members stopped going to the region meeting that this "wonderful new" system has been created in region 6 to deal with land matters on such an aggressive basis. In the 10 years we have been members, There were always land reports in the minutes, there were always requests to write letters. Since the region land person Randy Drake seems to have set this up within region 6, you should know who has been assigned to follow the management plan for the Willamette or any other forest in Region 6, so why did you feel the need to ask the question? The clubs would be Strawberry Hill and Oregon Trails in this area. Has Randy roped any of them into this wonderful land matters system?

Anyways, she will be back from Chicago next week and I will let her deal with this then. Hope the conference call went well.

If ANYONE has written to them concerning trails within the past couple of years (except for the Santiam OHV area) or have had conversations with them or turned in maps, we need to know ASAP.

I'm still looking for my past comments. I've had a computer crash since then, and I'm fairly sure I backed up my old letters. If I recollect correctly, My letter was generic, like Beth's. It stated we need Class II trails in the area. As soon as I find it, I'll send a copy to Mona.

I have taken quite a bit of time thinking about this. I am very confused as to the animosity of a few concerning the land use process currently being employed within Region 6.

Art stated:
“While it would be nice to have a system like Arlene has in WA, the last 7 or 8 Directors have gotten no help in setting it up and making it work. This has gone on since at least my first stint as Director back in the mid 80's. The people on the ground need to make it happen.”

He also stated:
“ALL state directors for the past 20+ years have tried to do something along those lines to no avail. The rank and file is/was not interested, they would just as soon see someone else do it.”

These past decades have seen us doing the same old thing, the same old way, with the same old people getting the same old results: ZERO trails. We finally decided to do things just a little different in Deschutes County 4-Wheelers. Doing something different, a different way with different people and got different results. We ended up signing our first 21 miles of trail. Then we found ourselves building another trail system with the Forest Service from scratch. Next we see the Forest Service in the NEPA process for three more brand new trail systems in Central Oregon totally over 100 miles. Something was working.

So Randy decided to expand to the region level. He got many people excited and involved. He armed them with new ideas, new data and new approaches. We now have a couple dozen people actively involved in the Travel Management process on several forests and have at least six different clubs engaged to actively pursue trails. This has resulted in an additional 1700 miles of Level 1 roads and/or new trails to be available to Class II within the region. That is not a typographical error - 1700 miles!! And that is just in four forests. Think what could happen throughout the state if this starts to snowball?? None of these miles would have been designated if we had stuck to the old way of doing things. Does this make us the “end all be all” of land matters? No, but it sure makes for a “wonderful new system”.

I guess I would have assumed that others would be excited that someone “on the ground” is making things happen, that the rank and file was finally interested. Instead, we are insulted and old animosities are continually brought up. The old way doesn’t work. Times have changed. Simply requesting people to write letters and sending generic emails is no longer an acceptable land use plan. We needed a new way with new people yielding new results.

At no time in the past number of years have we had so many clubs so actively engaged, so many people willing to step up to the plate and soooo many miles of trails being designated. I would have assumed that you would be shouting praises from the mountaintops and joining the bandwagon instead of throwing insults.

So I would ask those who may “disagree” with the “wonderful new way” to please stop the bitterness against us, stop fighting against us and instead celebrate with us, join us, build with us. Let the old ways go and embrace the new because we are going to need all the help we can get to build all these new trail systems.

Back to the original thread, again. We need documentation from anybody anywhere who has had any contact with the Willamette - letters, emails, maps, meetings, town halls, phone calls, whatever. They are claiming that they have heard from nobody. Please contact Randy if you have anything.

You forgot to include Ground Hog Rock Pit. This pit and the Competition that goes on there is fast becoming one of the best local events in the Pacific North West. This Pit was built with a $40,000 grant using OHV funds and 150 volunteers over a period of 10 days. If you don't believe me then come on down for the 4th annual in early June 2010. Hope to see you there.

Patti- I was not dissing what you guys have got going. I was just saying don't blame the exec's from the past years for not having that kind of system, the members would not get involved. If Randy has found a way to get them to work for it, GREAT. But past exec's could not do it all on their own.

How do you figure that an additional 1700 miles of Level 1 roads/trails have been desiginated on 4 forests within the region. Siuslaw did not open any ML 1 roads for class II, I don't see where Willamette is going to. The only forest that I am aware of desiginating additional class II trails is Wallowa Whitman, and that in only one alternative. I am just curious as to where the figures come from.